Hi everyone. Since it is so expensive to stay in Santa Cruz for a weekend, I was wondering if there were any other towns nearby (not more than a 30 minute drive to Santa Cruz beaches)to get a room. Thanks

I would look into Capitola.

If you aren't looking for luxury accomodations, you might try Watsonville, which is about a 20-25 minute drive from Santa Cruz.

There is a Best Western downtown, the Comfort Inn is on the outskirts, but is brand new, the Holiday Inn Express is pretty new, in town, and right off the freeway, and the Red Roof Inn on the outskirts of town and right off the freeway.

Another option for nice accomodations at a decent price would be in San Jose. There are usually special deals on the weekends.

http://siliconvalley.citysearch.com/

http://sanjose.org/

I know what you mean, we try to stay at the Dream Inn West Coast....right there, but it has become ridiculously expensive$). We have tried some of the cheaper places and found them filthy. Our second choice is as above mentioned the Holiday Inn Express. Capitola would be my next choice for searching for accomodations since it is also a beach town.

I wouldn't stay in San Jose, unless I couldn't find anything over on the coast because although SJ is only about 30 or so miles from SC, the weekend traffic getting over to the coast can be horrendous. If the sun is out, hwy 17 will be a parking lot.

Although Capitiola is not a bad place to stay, it will not be much cheaper than Santa Cruz(it's only about 6 miles away). Watsonville is okay, but there's not too much going on there at night. I thin that San Jose would be the best option since there's plenty of nightlife(especially downtown) when you return from your relaxing day at the beach. In my expereince the drive on highway 17 on the weekend is not too bad at all. It usually takes me about 20 or 25 minutes max.

What time do you go over the hill delvicchio and make it in 20-25 minutes max.?

I grew up in the Santa Cruz area and have lived in San Jose for the past 7 years. Since a lot of my family still lives in the Santa Cruz area, I am very familiar with hwy 17.

If the weather is nice, there will be a substantial amount of traffic in the morning going toward Santa Cruz as everyone in the valley heads over to the coast. In the afternoon, it is the same story heading back over the hill to San Jose as everyone heads home. I have been in this traffic more times than I care to remember and avoid driving the hill at those times if at all possible.

Without traffic, the drive is about 20-25 minutes for someone who is very familiar with the road. For someone who is not, it will take longer because they wont be able to drive as fast. With traffic, the drive takes a lot longer.

You will get no arguement from me that SJ has a lot more going on that Watsonville - I grew up in Watsonville and I can atest to the fact that there is no nightlife there. But the drive to Santa Cruz from Watsonville is a lot easier than the drive to San Jose.

J Correa,

I have driven highway 17 in during the mid morning and afternoon hours on weekends. I do this drive every so often however, I would not consider myself an expert driving this road, it's really not all that bad. The speed limit averages around 50 MPH on most stretches of the highway. The only time that traffic can be a pain is during the weekday commute (AM: Santa Cruz-SJ) and (PM: SJ-Santa Cruz). Ever since the dot com crash, there has been noticeably less traffic on highway 17 during the weekday and weekends.

I guess I've had a different experience.

I too agree with the others about staying in San Jose. I have done that before instead of staying in the Santa Cruz area. I have not really had much problem with the traffic on highway 17 though.

can anyone shed some light on the travelodge and the quality inn on ocean avenue? made ressies at both places....ive heard both good and bad things...any help would be appreciated..
thanks